A PTRS processing method includes: receiving, by a terminal, first indication information and second indication information from a network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a time-domain location at which a PTRS is to be sent by the terminal, and the second indication information is used to indicate an offset of an initial time-domain location to which the PTRS is mapped by the terminal; mapping, by the terminal, the PTRS to one or more DFT-s-OFDM symbols based on the first indication information and the second indication information; and sending, by the terminal, the one or more DFT-s-OFDM symbols. In this way, the PTRS mapped to the DFT-s-OFDM symbol is offset at a DFT-s-OFDM symbol level.